Choosing the right estimator#

Often the hardest part of solving a machine learning problem can be finding the right estimator for the job. Different estimators are better suited for different types of data and different problems.

The flowchart below is designed to give users a bit of a rough guide on how to approach problems with regard to which estimators to try on your data. Click on any estimator in the chart below to see its documentation. The 😭 emoji is to be read as β€œif this estimator does not achieve the desired outcome, then follow the arrow and try the next one”. Use scroll wheel to zoom in and out, and click and drag to pan around. You can also download the chart: ml_map.svg.

START
START
>50
samples
>50...
get
more
data
get...
NO
NO
predicting a
category
predicting...
YES
YES
do you have
labeled
data
do you hav...
YES
YES
predicting a
quantity
predicting...
NO
NO
just
looking
just...
NO
NO
predicting
structure
predicting...
NO
NO
tough
luck
tough...
<100K
samples
<100K...
YES
YES
SGD
Classifier
SGD...
NO
NO
Linear
SVC
Linear...
YES
YES
text
data
text...
😭
😭
Kernel
Approximation
Kernel...
😭
😭
KNeighbors
Classifier
KNeighbors...
NO
NO
SVC
SVC
Ensemble
Classifiers
Ensemble...
😭
😭
Naive
Bayes
Naive...
YES
YES
classification
classification
number of
categories
known
number of...
NO
NO
<10K
samples
<10K...
<10K
samples
<10K...
NO
NO
NO
NO
YES
YES
MeanShift
MeanShift
VBGMM
VBGMM
YES
YES
MiniBatch
KMeans
MiniBatch...
NO
NO
clustering
clustering
KMeans
KMeans
YES
YES
Spectral
Clustering
Spectral...
GMM
GMM
😭
😭
<100K
samples
<100K...
YES
YES
few features
should be
important
few features...
YES
YES
SGD
Regressor
SGD...
NO
NO
Lasso
Lasso
ElasticNet
ElasticNet
YES
YES
RidgeRegression
RidgeRegression
SVR(kernel="linear")
SVR(kernel="linea...
NO
NO
SVR(kernel="rbf")
SVR(kernel="rbf...
Ensemble
Regressors
Ensemble...
😭
😭
regression
regression
Ramdomized
PCA
Ramdomized...
YES
YES
<10K
samples
<10K...
😭
😭
Kernel
Approximation
Kernel...
NO
NO
IsoMap
IsoMap
Spectral
Embedding
Spectral...
YES
YES
LLE
LLE
😭
😭
dimensionality
reduction
dimensionality...
scikit-learn
algorithm cheat sheet
scikit-learn...
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